1Lower back arches
What you see: The ribs flare and the low back sways to get the weight up.
The fix: "Tuck it", "abs tight", squeeze your glutes. Lighten the weight or press seated with your back supported.
Form guides · Upper body
The overhead press: up, without the arch.
Pressing overhead shows quickly whether your trunk can hold still while your arms move.
What good looks like.
Pressing a weight overhead trains your shoulders and triceps, and it asks your trunk to stay still while you do it. If your shoulders are stiff, the body cheats by arching the lower back to get the weight up. Brad cues the lower back on overhead work as often as he does on rows: "tuck it".
- Feet hip width, glutes and "abs tight" before you press.
- "Tuck it": ribs down over the hips, low back flat.
- Weights start at shoulder height, wrists stacked over elbows.
- Press straight up, moving your head back slightly to let the weight past.
- Finish with the weight over your ears, shoulders down, not shrugged.
- "Head back", chin in
- Shoulders down: "drop the traps"
- Ribs down: "tuck it"
- Elbows under the wrists
The faults a trainer sees most
What goes wrong, and the cue that fixes it.
The cues in quotes are the words Brad Glaser uses with his own clients.
2Head pokes forward
What you see: The chin juts out at the top.
The fix: "Head back", "chin in". Push your head through the window your arms make.
3Shrugging
What you see: The shoulders climb to the ears.
The fix: "Drop the traps." Press up while your shoulder blades stay down.
4Pressing in front
What you see: The weight finishes in front of your face, not over your head.
The fix: Press straight up so the weight ends stacked over your shoulders.
Make it easier, make it harder.
Easier
- Seated press with your back against a bench.
- Resistance band press, as Merissa shows in the photo.
- One arm at a time, lighter.
Harder
- Standing barbell press.
- Half-kneeling one-arm press.
- A slow three-second lower.
Move within a range that feels comfortable, and stop any exercise that hurts. Have a health condition, or been inactive a while? Ask your doctor what is right for you first. VeraForma is coaching, not medicine. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it does not replace your doctor or physio.
Let your phone check it.
Prop your phone up and train. VeraForma's camera draws the line on your body and names what it sees, with the number it measured.
Free: your reps counted out loud, and the common standing faults shown right on screen, with the fix in your set report. Go Premium and it speaks the fix while you move: "Knees out." "Chest up."
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free: your movement screen, Phase 1 of your programme and all of nutrition.
More form guides
Built by Brad Glaser · NASM Master Trainer · NASM-CPT, CES, PES · 20+ years · has certified 100+ personal trainers.
He owns a personal-training studio in Southern California. The same method he uses standing next to a client, built into the app.
Train it right, free.
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free account, no card. Brad's questions. One squat on camera. Then your results.